ABSTRACT
Introduction It is possible, indeed probable, that the vast majority of people with an interest in sport have never participated directly in player or crowd violence. They have never thrown a punch during a hockey game or a missile from the bleachers, or been knocked unconscious by an opponent in the octagon. Yet these behaviours are known to them. Their perceptions are far more likely to have developed indirectly with help from the mass media including, increasingly, images and messages of sport constantly updated on Internet sites, in blogs or in some other form of ‘new media’ (Wilson 2007). Answers to questions such as ‘who does sports violence?,’ ‘when, where and how does it take place?’ and ‘what are its effects?’ are routinely available in the sports media, sometimes implicitly, sometimes explicitly, but rarely innocently. In this sense, our understanding of sports violence is likely mediated – refracted to us through the camera lens, the printed sports report or some version of web coverage in a process where some behaviours are emphasized and others downplayed or left out altogether. This chapter examines how aspects of SRV have been portrayed in the media, as well as exploring the role of journalists in covering aggressive and injury-producing aspects of sport. As a case study, the chapter uses data gleaned from content analyses and one-on-one interviews with Canadian journalists to assess the roles and assumptions of members of the sports media, which guide the production of television and newspaper reports. The effects of mass media portrayals of violence on violence itself have, for decades, generated public debate and extensive published research. While the latter has not resulted in the conclusive establishment of a direct cause-and-effect relationship between media coverage and real life violence, evidence suggests a symbiotic co-existence. The chapter summarizes this literature and reviews the thorny question of ‘media effects.’ Finally, recent changes in the relationship between the media and the
public, and the possibility of moving towards a more responsible sports media are considered.
